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Transit of Venus 2012: Will weather forecast be sunny or cloudy?

June 5, 2012 | 12:52
pm

Will the forecast be sunny or cloudy? Most of California, the Southwest and Midwest are forecast to have clear skies for the Transit of Venus, a rare astronomical sight that will come Tuesday afternoon. But the East Coast, Southeast and Pacific Northwest will likely face cloudy skies.

The poor cloud conditions on the East Coast mean that yet again, they probably won't be able to see the cosmic show. The rare solar eclipse in May -- the first of its kind since 1994 to directly hit the continental United States -- was not viewable from the Eastern seaboard.

"There's going to be a lot of problems in the eastern part of the country," AccuWeather.com meteorologist Ken Clark told The Times, from New England to the Mid-Atlantic states into Florida. There are "a lot of clouds and thunderstorms scattered about." Washington state, Oregon, and the extreme northern edge of California will also be cloudy.

Clear skies are expected in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino for the entire transit, which begins shortly after 3 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time and ends in California at sunset, according to the National Weather Service. Partly cloudy skies are expected for San Diego County.

Finally, in Hawaii, skies are expected to be clear above Mauna Kea, where NASA will anchor live Web coverage of the Transit of Venus online. More webcasts of the transit are also online, including one from Southern California's Mount Wilson.